'The Kerala Story' declared tax-free in UP

The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday announced that the controversial movie 'The Kerala Story' will be tax-free in the state.

"'The Kerala Story' will be made tax-free in Uttar Pradesh," Yogi Adityanath said in a tweet in Hindi. Yogi Adityanath is expected to watch the movie with his cabinet colleagues at a special screening.

'The Kerala Story' had run into controversy with petitions being filed in several courts including in the Supreme Court seeking a stay on its release. However, the courts have refused to ban the flick.

The story revolves around several women being converted and then sold off as sex slaves to the Islamic State.

The plot follows the story of a group of women from Kerala who are converted to Islam and later forced to join terror group ISIS. The filmmakers claim that the movie is a compilation of true stories of three young girls from different parts of Kerala.

The numbers have become a subject of debate as the film directed by Sudipto Sen claims that 32,000 women from Kerala were sold off as sex slaves.

On May 6, Madhya Pradesh government had declared the movie tax-free in the state.

Bengal bans film

The West Bengal has issued a ban on the film 'The Kerala Story,' citing the need to maintain peace and prevent incidents of hatred and violence in the state.

This decision makes West Bengal the first state to impose a ban on the film, which portrays the harrowing journey of three women trafficked to ISIS camps after being forcibly converted to Islam through marriage.

The Kerala Story has hit the big screens on May 5.